25 August 2015

"Never forget that sin is the only great evil in the world."-- the Feast of Saint Louis

May this great saint and ruler pray for his namesake city and archdiocese in these troubled times. From Fisheaters:

Louis, the quintessential Christian Prince, was born in
Poissy, France on 25 April 1215 to King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. His
father died when he was just eleven years old, and he was crowned -- at Rheims,
like almost all French Kings -- on the First Sunday of Advent in 1226. His very
strong and pious mother acted as his regent, suppressing various revolts to
secure her son's place. She acted as regent even after he reached the age of
majority, and guided his career with strong Christian advice, forming his
character in holiness. She would say to him, "Never forget that sin is the
only great evil in the world. No mother could love her son more than I love
you. But I would rather see you lying dead at my feet than know that you had
offended God by one mortal sin" -- sentiments that he took to heart and
would later pass on to his own successor.

In 1230, he outlawed all forms of usury and compelled
usurers to contribute toward the Crusades when their debtors could not be found
to be compensated (later under his reign, in 1240, would come the famous
disputation of the Talmud in Paris, after rulers and churchmen discovered what
blasphemies the Talmud taught. Copies of the Talmud were burned in great fires
in the streets of Paris).

Louis married at age nineteen, in 1234, taking to wife
Marguerite of Provence, with whom he had eleven children -- five sons and six
daughters. He went on a Crusade in 1248, and fought nobly and with great honor,
forbidding his men to kill prisoners and always expecting them to act as
Christians. But he lost the battle and, weakened by dysentery, was captured in
Mansoura, Egypt. During his captivity, he sang the Divine Office every day with two chaplains and conducted himself with such honor as to impress
his captors. When the Sultan was killed by his own emirs, he was set free, but
didn't immediately return to Europe; instead, he went to the Holy Land, and
remained there in order to help fortify the Christian colonies, not returning
until 1254, during which time his mother died.

Very dedicated to the cause of peace, he not only arbitrated
and made treaties with Henry III and James I of Aragon, but did much to curb a
lot of the petty, feudal warfare that caused so much harm. He was a great
patron of learning, the arts, and architecture, and under his patronage, the
Sorbonne was founded; abbeys built; the choir, apse, and nave of St. Denis
Basilica -- which contains the tombs of almost all French Kings -- were
refurbished, etc. His crowning architectural glory, though, is Ste. Chapelle,
the beautiful chapel with the walls of stained glass that sits on the tiny Ile
de la Cité right in the middle of Paris, in the Seine River (the same island
where Notre Dame Cathedral is found). This chapel was built to house a part of
the Crown of Thorns and a piece of the True Cross which he purchased from
Emperor Baldwin II in Constantinople, and it became St. Louis's personal royal
chapel.

Glorious and fruitful was his reign! Indeed, having dealt
with economic woes by expelling the usurers from France, King St. Louis ruled
over a time that became known as "the golden century of Saint Louis."

He was most famous, though, for his charity, humility, and
concern for the poor. He built many hospitals, among them the hospital known as
"Quinze-vingt" ("Fifteen-Twenty") -- a hospital for the
blind and whose name comes from the fact that it could care for 300 patients.
He built homes for reformed prostitutes. Every day, he met with the poor
personally and saw to it that they were fed, inviting them to dine with him,
and washing their feet in imitation of Christ at the Last Supper. He gave
special attention to the indigent during Advent and Lent. All who knew him
admired him; no one spoke ill of him and he spoke ill of no one else. His
biographer, Joinville, wrote, "I was a good twenty-two years in the King's
company and never once did I hear him swear, either by God, or His Mother, or
His saints. I did not even hear him name the Devil, except if he met the word
when reading aloud, or when discussing what had been read."

He was also very devoted to the cause of Justice, and
eliminated the feudal method of conflict resolution through combat, replacing
it with arbitration and judicial process. He eradicated his ancestors'
"King's Court" and established popular courts in which he, himself,
would hear his subjects' grievances.

In 1270, he went off on another Crusade, this time in an
attempt to convert the Emir of Tunis after being inspired by acting as
godfather to a Jewish convert. Again, his Crusade failed, and again he became
sick with dysentery. This time, though, he did not recover. He died at three in
the afternoon on 25 August 1270. His last words were those of Christ:
"Into Thy hands I commend my spirit." He was canonized in 1297, 27
years after his death, and was succeeded by his son, Philip III. His line continued after him until the French Revolution,
when King Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1703. At this act of
regicide, the Abbe Edgeworth said, "Son of St. Louis, ascend to
Heaven!"

King Louis's remains were laid to rest, like those of almost
all French Kings, in the Basilica of St. Denis (now a northern suburb of
Paris). The Basilica was sacked during the infamous Revolution and its royal
tombs were emptied into a mass grave -- with some of the tombs themselves being
destroyed, including that of St. Louis (the tomb-smashing was stopped when an
archaeologist of the time urged the revolutionaries to consider
them "works of art"). In 1817, the mass grave was opened and all of
the bones were placed in a single ossuary, with the names of the monarchs
recorded.

St. Louis is the patron of builders, kings, large families,
and Crusaders (and, of course, St. Louis, Missouri). He is represented in art
by the Crown of Thorns, crown, scepter, and the fleur-de-lis.

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."